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3D N64/PS1/Saturn games that still look good

FreeMufasa

Junior Member
Are there any? That 2D indie thread got me thinking about this and i can't honestly think of one. We can say super Metroid looks amazing still, conker reloaded and FFXII too from the gen after. But it's hard for the 5th gen. I don't mean in a it looks so bad it's good/charming but genuinely is pleasing to look at in 2014. Can be artistically too.

If u manz can think of any, post pics
 

Krejlooc

Banned
nZy1IIV.jpg
 

Krejlooc

Banned
For a very short period of time, I thought, "No, Gradius V is a PS2 game, not a PS1 game" and then I saw the end of the post...

What game is that?

Thunder Force V. That might actually be from the PSX version (because of the true transparency), but the Saturn version has better graphics anyways (the PSX version is missing tons of effects and background layers).
 

inner-G

Banned
Almost all of those examples look bad now, I don't think anything 3d from that gen holds up very well graphically.

That 2D shmup looks good though, SotN looks decent too. 2D def has aged better.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Almost all of those examples look bad now, I don't think anything 3d from that gen holds up very well graphically.

That 2D shmup looks good though, SotN looks decent too. 2D def has aged better.

Most of what is being posted looks great in motion, not so much in screenshots. It's hard to show how smooth Virtua Fighter 2 looks in high resolution at 60 fps in a screenshot. The Tobal 2 gifs posted look like they're going slow because they're showing all the frames.

A good example of this is the Sega Super Scaler games, they look really bad in screenshots:

4QWMbHr.png


But in motion they look incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6nmsQhOkRo#t=7m35s
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The architecture is still amazing. I replayed it recently and was amazed at how well it holds up. Animations, both from Raziel and monsters, are excellent as well.
Soul_Reaver_Material_Spectral_Realm.PNG


Soul_Raver_Gameplay.png

[Edit: Oops, this is the Dreamcast version I think... sorry! Just looted it off Wikipedia's Russian (?) page without analyzing it too much]

122422-legacy-of-kain-soul-reaver-windows-screenshot-raziel-returns.png


ss_2447ccb16398386fbc57c49cfcfed43daa57211c.1920x1080.jpg


ss_6ddc40846f2dcf474dff27d368a1eb24b2078286.1920x1080.jpg

Cloth physics. On the PSX.
How about wing physics? :)
Legacy_of_Kain-Soul_Reaver_(PC)_42.gif


(Yes this gif is from the PC version, but it's the same thing, it was a direct port... actually a really shitty one at that, unfortunately, I'd recommend the PSX version over it easily.)

These also hold up:

Crash games
Panzer Dragoon games
NiGHTS Into Dreams

Do games with 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites count? If so:

Final Fantasy Tactics
Breath of Fire III
Xenogears

This looks like a ps2 game
Naughty Gods?
 
It has some low res textures as anything has from that era, but I still find the Banjo games to be pleasing to look at.

Most of their charm comes from the good animation on everything and the stylized models of everything. Tick Tock Woods with it's massive central tree is still pretty impressive as well as how the entire aesthetic of the level changes as you change the seasons. Even the enemies will dress differently.

Clanker's Cavern was also a really cool, great looking level, especially how Clanker actually moves and breaths:

It's all very subjective, though I'll admit. Games like Metal Gear Solid are very impressive to see knowing they were made back on the PS1, but the textures (especially on people) are so bad and it has all the built in PS1 polygonal limitations. However I still find it to be pretty impressive when you account for the era it was made. Maybe not as "timeless" looking as Super Metroid or stuff like that, but still impressive.

I still like how Final Fantasy 7 looks, LEGO mini-fig character models and all.
 
Quake. Obviously not as good as the PC version, but very impressive considering it's the Saturn, a console not known for 3D games.

I also think Powerslave and Doom 64 look quite ace, although those are using 2D sprites in a 3D world (well, pseudo-3D, at least in Doom's case), so it's a bit more debatable how much they count.

I still think Spyro the Dragon looks quite good, even in our modern era. Very smart, simple art direction goes a long way here. It's quite nice how they made the sky out of untextured polygons, instead tinting the vertices so it would scale up to HD resolutions without skipping a beat.
 
D

Deleted member 8095

Unconfirmed Member
Mario 64 still looks pretty damn good if you ask me.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Quake. Obviously not as good as the PC version, but very impressive considering it's the Saturn, a console not known for 3D games.

I also think Powerslave and Doom 64 look quite ace, although those are using 2D sprites in a 3D world (well, pseudo-3D, at least in Doom's case), so it's a bit more debatable how much they count.

Quake is actually using the Powerslave engine, they were made by Lobotomy. Duke Nukem 3D is the third game that uses the engine, and it's similarly as impressive. All three form a nice trifecta of good FPS games on the Saturn.
 

Balb

Member
Personally I think just about every first and second-party N64 game look good. A lot of third party games like Castlevania 64 look dreadful though. Even the text is blurry in a lot of those games somehow.
 
I also think Powerslave and Doom 64 look quite ace, although those are using 2D sprites in a 3D world (well, pseudo-3D, at least in Doom's case), so it's a bit more debatable how much they count.

.

Man, I want to play the Saturn Powerslave again so badly. But I do not own a Saturn anymore or a copy of the game. I loved how the game looked and felt on the Saturn, the Playstation version isn't bad either, but I always like the Saturn version more. The game is also on PC, but it uses the Build Engine and is completely different.
 

linko9

Member
I think a number of 64 games still look great; Mario, both Zeldas, BK, SSB. They don't try to make things too busy visually, so while the graphics look simple, they still look visually appealing. I think Tekken 3 on PSX still looks pretty good, as do ff 8 and 9, though those last two are mainly due to the prerendered backgrounds.
 
Man, I want to play the Saturn Powerslave again so badly. But I do not own a Saturn anymore or a copy of the game. I loved how the game looked and felt on the Saturn, the Playstation version isn't bad either, but I always like the Saturn version more. The game is also on PC, but it uses the Build Engine and is completely different.
Still have the copy I picked up during my freshman year of college back in 2006, when Saturn prices were still vaguely sane (barring a few white whales like Panzer Dragoon Saga). I really need to finish it at some point. Oh how I wish the PC version was a more direct copy of it, though; it desperately needs mouselook. (Then again, from what I've tried of the PC version, the mouse support in it is utterly abysmal - surprising, since Duke 3D and Blood support it relatively fine.)
 

EBE

Member
Banjo Kazooie gets my vote as well. fly up to the top of any level - no fog anywhere and it keeps a pretty good framerate. impressive
 

Celegus

Member
Nope, none of them. I hated 'em back then I still hate 'em today. Just give me some nice sprites or pre-rendered backgrounds please.
 

Tain

Member
If you're using a low resolution CRT display most of the games that looked good in the first place still look good.

I've been playing Tobal No. 1 a bit lately (trying to beat Udan's Dungeon before playing through No. 2), and it's clean as hell.

Saturn DoA and VF2 are great-looking, but given the nonexistent lighting I can understand why most other 3D fighting games on the platform are lower resolution.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
As presented by the machines so many games are ugly as is. But with what amounts to basically little to no effort due to our powerful hardware, a huge number look good with a little clean up. So high resolution, no texture warping, removal of fog, basically otherwise not touching the assets but cleaning up the rendering of them.

OMG Jumping Flash.
 
Nope, none of them. I hated 'em back then I still hate 'em today. Just give me some nice sprites or pre-rendered backgrounds please.

Pre-rendered backgrounds suck for two reasons:

1. You can't rotate your view
2. The low resolution images don't scale well (as 3D backgrounds do with emulators)
 

Izayoi

Banned
I love these threads - always full of cool looking games but never any name to accompany them.

It's like torture.
 

YesManKablaam

Neo Member
Arguably more down to the artstyle than anything else, but man I do love going back to Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf:

image_25619.jpg


This would also be my answer for the dream sequel thread, as I can no longer replay it as all the solutions are burned into my memory.
 
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